Originally Posted by
tom tulpe
My wife had an (expired) German residence permit in her old passport, from the time when she was studying there, and another from when she worked in Germany. Her passport and nationality allow visa-free entry for 90 days. Still, she was grilled on a regular basis re why she was coming to Germany when her residence permit had expired several years ago (answer: now UK based, going to Germany on business or, indeed, as a tourist). All that stopped the minute she got a new passport w/o any visible trace of old residence permits. Entry into Germany is now usually a 30-seconds affair (the time it takes to scan the passport and stamp it).
Really? How weird. Before I was a UK citizen, I used to travel quite frequently to Germany with my US passport - it, too, contained two expired residence permits for Germany (one as a student, one as a worker) and no one ever gave me a hard time. They would almost always just glance at it, see it was expired, and find somewhere to stamp. Once or twice, someone would say "You don't live here anymore?" to which I would say "Nope - moved to London years ago," and that would be that. Odd that your wife got a hard time.
Originally Posted by
tom tulpe
BTW your friend isn't Aussie, Kiwi or white Saffer? They're odds-on for a thorough working over esp by LHR immigration if they look in any way like they'll try to overstay.
No, my friend's actually from the sub-continent. He's on the plane now, so we'll know in six hours! Should be fine. He's got all documentation etc.
Cheers all. And interesting discussion all round. ^